Isolate tab data

Tab isolation is a mode that provides additional protection for your data. The domain restriction rule prevents program code posted on a site from receiving data from other sites. Malicious programs try circumventing this rule in order to steal user data (usernames, passwords, card numbers, etc.). Tab isolation prevents malicious code from stealing your data from other tabs that are open in the browser.

Why isolate tab data?

At the beginning of 2018, information about serious hardware vulnerabilities named Meltdown and Spectre was released through various media outlets. The first vulnerability was discovered in the majority of Intel processors that have been released since 1995; the second vulnerability concerns AMD and ARM processors. These vulnerabilities allow malicious code to access the memory that is protected on the level of the processor, OS, or sandboxes used by browsers. As a result, hackers can, for example, track what text you enter in apps or steal your passwords and personal information.

Since these vulnerabilities were discovered on the level of the processor architecture, it is impossible to completely protect your computer against them. You can, however, decrease your risk of an attack by taking the following measures:

Update your OS. We recommend disabling automatic updates and restarting your computer. At the beginning of 2018, Microsoft launched corresponding security updates for Windows, and updates for macOS and Linux were also released.

Enable site isolation mode in Yandex.Browser. If data isolation is enabled, the browser will launch a separate process for each open browser tab. That way malicious software launched on one tab can't steal data that you entered on another tab.

How to enable tab-data isolation

Attention. This function is currently under development, so it may negatively impact your browser's productivity or stability. Sometimes internal browser pages may not display (browser://bookmarks, browser://tune ). This is a temporary inconvenience, however.